To receive the full benefits and features of OWA, use the most current versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. OWA offers similar functionality of the Microsoft Outlook client when using an updated internet browser.

Enabling and disabling the Out of Office assistant

To enable the Out of Office Assistant:

In the upper right corner of the OWA window, click Options.

In the resulting window:

In the Premium Interface, on the left, click Organize E-Mail and then to the right click Automatic Replies.

In the Light Interface, on the left, click Automatic Replies.

To disable the Out of Office assistant, on the right, select Don't send automatic replies.

To enable the Out of Office assistant, on the right, select Send automatic replies. You have several options:

To set a time frame for the Out of Office auto-replies to begin and end, check Send replies only during this time period: Then:

Next to "Start time:", use the menu to select the month and day, and then the time you want the Out of Office Assistant to start sending the auto-replies.

Repeat for the "End time:".

To send a different message to users outside your organization, check Send automatic reply messages to External Senders. Then, choose from the two options available:

Send replies only to senders in my Contacts list (Use this option to send the reply to senders outside of your organization but in your Contacts list.)

Send replies to anyone outside my organization

Compose the auto-reply in the text boxes provided; you can also send a different message to external senders. The Premium interface provides font and paragraph editing tools; the Light interface provides only a text field with no formatting tools.

Click Save.

Disabling the Out of Office assistant

To disable the Out of Office Assistant, in step 3 above, select Don't send automatic replies, and then click Save